Jurji Zaidan's Contributions to Modern Arab Thought and Literature

Jurji Zaidan?s Contributions to Modern Arab Thought and Literature consists of a series of essays commissioned by the Zaidan Foundation for a Symposium sponsored by the Library of Congress, the Kluge Center and the Zaidan Foundation and held at the Library of Congress on June 5th, 2012 in Washington DC. The essays were prepared by a group of eminent scholars in literature, history and other disciplines in leading universities in the US, Canada, France and the Middle East working on the Nahda or Arab awakening of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and, in particular, on Jurji Zaidan?s leading role in this movement. The scope of the essays cover many areas that Zaidan influenced in important ways?in particular his role as historical novelist, journalist, political scientist, educator and social reformer. Contributors include Professors Roger Allen of the University of Pennsylvania, Georges Corm of Saint-Joseph University, Michael Cooperson of UCLA, Anne-Laure Dupont and Zaïneb Ben Lagha from the Sorbonne, Marwa Elshakry from Columbia University, William Granara from Harvard University, Jens Hanssen from the University of Toronto, Thomas Philipp from Erlangen-Nürnberg, as well as Dr Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria and Dr George C. Zaidan. Additionally, this volume includes translated articles by Jurji Zaidan relevant to some of the themes of the essays. This volume complements another work sponsored by the Zaidan Foundation entitled ?Jurji Zaidan and the Foundations of Arab Nationalism? by Thomas Philipp and published by Syracuse University Press. The latter book focuses on an evaluation of how Jurji Zaidan?s approach to history and the Arabic language shaped Arab nationalism